We’re slowly but surely converting our old home videos from VHS to DVD and in the process I’m playing around with converting the DVDs to MPEG files. Below is a video of our daughter falling asleep while eating pizza when she was a toddler. Man does time fly.
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Befuddled 
I may have some tech questions for you on this, as I’m embarking on the same thing. (And some of my VHS originated as 8mm home movies my dad shot.) My earliest attempts to capture analog video worked, kinda, but they seemed awfully jerky. Is that what they mean by “frame drop”?
You know I really don’t know. My understanding of this is still pretty basic. Here’s what I did just so you know:
1. To convert from VHS to DVD I used a Sony set-top DVD/VHS player/recorder.
2. I dubbed the entire tape to a DVD-R.
3. I “finalized” the DVD which made it readable by other machines.
4. I downloaded a free trial version of ImTOO DVD Ripper
5. I “ripped” the track from the DVD and converted it to MPEG-2
6. Uploaded the MPEG file to Youtube
I’d equate this experience to learning how to drive an automatic car and not really understanding the underlying concepts of how cars work. I have a feeling that when I run into problems I’ll learn how to troubleshoot them and what causes what.
I found the DVD ripping software from either about.com or PCmag.com, I can’t remember which, but both have a lot of good information for video neophytes like me.
I have no aspirations of doing a lot of editing at this point, but you never know since I only started blogging to see what it was all about and now two years later it’s pretty much my top hobby. Filmmaking might be next:)